Analysis of David

John Le Gay Brereton 1871 (Sydney) – 1933



Eternal cold of silence, where each sound
Dies in its birth, and Death's pale henchmen meet
With soft Lethean traps unwary feet
Or ride with hell's white steed and slavering hound;
Which of us, searching selfward, has not found
This desolate realm, and long black seams, that greet
Our souls with recollections of defeat,
And torrid fossils in the frozen ground?
Not he, who comes among us as a king;
Strange were the secret waste and granite walls
To him whose reverent feet have travelled far
Where duty beckons and adventure calls.
He steers his course, by one red tropic star,
Where ripples the green robe of the lilting spring.


Scheme ABBAABBACDEDEC
Poetic Form
Metre 0101110111 1011011101 11110101 111111011 111101111 11001011111 1011010101 0101000101 1111011101 1001010101 11110011101 1101000101 1111111101 1100111011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 627
Words 112
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 506
Words per stanza (avg) 110
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
43

John Le Gay Brereton

John Le Gay Brereton was an Australian poet, critic and professor of English at the University of Sydney. He was the first president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers when it was formed in Sydney in 1928. more…

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